Display article.



No. 7l4,975. Patented Dec. 2, I902.

A. H. TRIMPI.

DISPLAY ARTICLE.

(Application filed. Juli 14, 1902.)

(No Model.)

UniTEn STATEs PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUST H. TRIMPI, OF EAST ORANGE, NEW JERSEY.

DISPLAY ARTICLE.

SPIEGXFIUATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 714,975, dated December 2, 1902.

Application filed July 14, 1902. Serial No. 115,396. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that 1, AUGUST I-I. TRIMPI, a citizen of the United States, residing at No. 11 North Twenty-first street,East Orange,county of Essex, State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Display Articles, fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forminga part of the same.

The object of the present invention is to furnish an article of ornamental appearance which may be used merely as an ornament, like the colored globes in the windows of a drug store, or as the foundation for a translucent sign having suitable lettering, or as a means of advertising gelatin or other preparations for the making of jelly. These objects are attained by the use of a glass casing through which light can be transmitted, and containing an imitation of jelly blocks or prisms having the interspaces between such blocks filled with a transparent medium. Blocks made of actual jelly have been packed in a jar with suitable liquids as a display article for advertising jelly, and a jar filled with such blocks and a colored liquid presents a very striking and ornamental appearance; but such blocks are liable to be affected by heat, by mold, and by various other destructive agencies.

In the present invention a complete substitute for such jelly blocks, without any of the drawbacks attending the use of jelly blocks, is secured by employing glass blocks or cubes, which may be prepared in such manner that when inclosed in a glass casing and immersed in a suitable liquid they cannot be distinguished from jelly blocks or cubes. Such imitation of the jelly blocks is secured by employing glass blocks or cubes which are preferably cut irregularly from plate-glass rather than molded in a die, and such glass blocks may be cut from plain clear glass and all the effects of colored jelly produced by filling the interspaces between the blocks with a suitable transparent or translucent colored medium. A mixture of gelatin and formaldehyde furnishes a medium which produces the most effective results and permits the use of differently-colored layers in the same glass casing. It is well known that formaldehyde operates to make the jelly waterproof and also to sterilize the substance, so that it may be filled in the casing between the glass blocks without deterioration or readily softened by heat or moisture. As a gelatin solution mixed with formaldehyde loses much of its plasticity, it cannot be readily inserted in a glass casing alread filled with glass blocks; but by the particular method of filling the glass casing the interspaces between the blocks may be filled with such a jelly solution, and the jelly may be introduced in successive layers of different colors, so as to impart a varigated and brilliant appearance to the article. This is effected by first placingalayer of the soft colored jelly in the glass casing and then stuffing or pressing the glass blocks into such layer until the blocks are level with the surface of the layer and after such layer of jelly has sufficiently hardened introducing a succeeding differently-colored layer and filling such layer with the glass blocks in a similar manner and repeating the operation with varicolored layers as often as required to fill the casing. The use of such prismatic blocks immersed in a transparent medium operates to reflect and retract the light which passes through the casing in a very brilliant manner. The efl'ect produced cannot be imitated in a drawing; but the arrangement of the parts is illustrated in the annexed drawings, in which Figure 1 represents an upright jar filled with four layers of jelly and the glass blocks. 2 is a cross-section of the jar, and Fig. 3 represents a rectangular frame forming with two sheets of glass a casing filled with glass blocks and a suitable transparent medium and inscribed with the words Prepared Gelatin Powder to illustrate the use of such a structure for an advertising-sign.

a designates the glass wall of the casing.

a in Fig. 3 designates the frame which holds the glass plates in position.

b designates the glass blocks or prisms, and c the medium which fills the interspaces between such blocks.

In practice only the blocks nearest the surface of the glass casing show their prismatic outline perfectly, as those farther from the surface are distorted and concealed by the Lot refraction of light, and this fact is represented in the drawings by the apparent separation of the glass blocks which do not appear to fill the casing.

Jelly blocks cannot in practice he made perfectly uniform in size and shape, and the irregularities which are produced by cutting plate-glass into cubes or prisms simulates the irregularities of jelly blocks or prisms in a very natural manner, while the surfaces of glass when thus cut and fractured furnish a medium for reflecting the light in the most brilliant manner. When such clear glass blocks are immersed in a colored medium, they appear to change color while producing the same brilliant reflections, and the desired effect can thus be produced without employing glass of various colors.

In Fig. l the interspaces between the blocks in the upper part of the jar are designated 0 and are shaded darker than the interspaces in the layer below, designated a. The places 0 below are again shaded more darkly, while those in the bottom of the jar are shaded lighter, such shading being designed to indicate the appearance of layers of different colors superposed upon one another. Such layers can most readily be produced by a plastic or semifluid substance capable of hardening, like gelatin; but in the use of waterproofod gelatin mixed with formaldehyde the substance will not if the glass blocks are first inserted in a layer flow readily between their surfaces and fill all the interspaces be tween the blocks and the jar. To produce such colored layers, I therefore employ the method described above by introducing the layers of gelatin singly and pressing the blocks down into each layer until the layer is packed full of theblocks.

Where varicolored layers are not required, a very effective result can be obtained by the use of any colored liquid or medium filling the interspaces of the glass blocks.

As I am the first to employ glass blocks in 5 such a combination, I do not limit myself exclusively to the use of cut or broken glass, but may use molded glass blocks, if desired.

I have found in practice that the jelly made from animal gelatin is more suitable and conso venient in this invention than the jelly made from fruit; but the term jelly as used herein covers generically any gelatinous substance suitable for such display purposes, as

the jelly is not designed in the present invenvention to be used for food.

Having thus set forth the nature of the invention, what is claimed herein is 1. A display article having a glass casing packed with glass blocks and the interspaces 6o filled with a transparent medium.

2. A display article having a glass casing packed with glass blocks and the interspaces filled with jelly.

3. A display article having a glass casing packed with glass blocks and the interspaces filled with waterproofed jelly.

4. A display article having a glass casing packed with glass blocks and the interspaces filled with waterproofed and sterilized jelly. 7o

' 5. A display article having a glass casing packed with glass blocks and the interspaces filled with transparent colored medium.

6. A display article having a glass casing packed with glass blocks and the interspaces filled in layers with transparent media of different colors.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

AUGUST H. TRIMPI. WVitnesses:

L. LEE, THOMAS S. CRANE. 

